


Dramatis Personae

by KagekaNecavi



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel, Marvel 616
Genre: Angst, Avengers #40, Fix-It, Happy Ending, M/M, Mentions AXIS, Mentions Superior Iron Man, incursions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-01
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2018-03-09 23:14:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3267902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KagekaNecavi/pseuds/KagekaNecavi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With their only plan no longer an option, there's not much chance of the Avengers managing to save their universe this time around. After the end, the stage is set again, the players take their places, and they must go on. This time things will be different, though.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dramatis Personae

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by that one post from way back when the header on the comics were saying "In 8 months everything ends" rather than 4 or 3 or whatever. Anyway, I think the post was by MissBeckyWrites and she said what if “everything ends” on 616 comics was literal. What if it really is the end of the universe?
> 
> And then of course we got the announcement about Battleworld and all that. Nope, ignoring that. Takes place after Avengers 40. Mentions Superior Iron Man/AXIS bullshit. Did not read New Avengers 29 before I wrote/posted this. Thanks to cloudyjenn for assistance with some stuck wording.

Steve learns two things, near the end. Lessons that he's learned before but apparently haven't sunk in enough to really be effective.

* * *

 

It’s not long until the time for the next incursion appears for the Illuminati, and they all curse and try to find a way around fighting the other world. It's hectic and desperate and the time is ticking down way too quickly. Steve wonders if this is how it was for Stark and the Illuminati before, because while he remembers Stark's betrayal he doesn't know all of the details.

Richards goes a little bit into the details and the basics are this: just like they knew the last planet was dead, they know this one is alive and thriving. They have a tentative plan in place. If this world is just right, if it's perfect and the people of that world are willing to take a chance, they might be able to resolve this thing without any blood spilt. There are too many variables, though, and if just one thing goes wrong then they'll have to make an impossible decision. But it's better than nothing. As they work on making sure that plan will actually be effective, they also try to create a second plan, just in case the first fails.

They don't end up coming up with a backup plan.

All too soon the other planet is shining bright in the sky and there's another group coming down to Earth to confront them. There's dozens of them, hundreds, all of the heroes and villains of that world working together and Steve is awestruck. Even with the Avengers World machine that Stark built, even with the other cosmic entities they have on their side they are so far out of their depth that it's terrifying. Especially once the inhabitants of the other Earth make it clear they do not want to work together. The other group's spokesperson says that they know that fighting and destroying other planets works, and that's what they want to stick to.

Partway through the fight there's a streak of silver flying through the air. No matter the changes in color or shape or profile, Steve would recognize the basics anywhere. It's Iron Man, but there's something off about him, the glimpses of the way he fights that Steve gets. He's brutal in a way that he's never been before. It's unsettling, but it turns the tide a little in their favor and Steve is almost glad for it. He can't be completely glad for it because there's something wrong with Iron Man, but they can handle that later.

The next time he looks at Iron Man, there's a woman in leather armor standing over Iron Man, who is on his knees and clutching at his head. The faceplate is down, and Iron Man is letting out cry, face twisted. Steve runs over and hears the woman say, "There's something flipped in you. If we flip it back, turn you back around on your axis, I doubt you'll be as effective a warrior." Iron Man lets out another scream and collapses, just as Steve reaches them. The woman smirks and moves off, leaving them alone for the moment.

"What happened?" Steve demands, helping Iron Man sit up. The armor bleeds back further as he does, and Iron Man looks shaken and vulnerable and more like his Tony than he has in years.

"She ... the switch. Red Skull's mind switch thing. She reversed it. I'm back to normal." Tony explains.

"Oh." Steve says, at a loss for what else to say. He feels relieved, with everything he is, that Tony is himself again, but he knows that the woman - a telepath, she must have been - was right. They are disadvantaged with Tony back to normal, and it makes Steve feel a little sick thinking about it like that. He shouldn't be thinking about his best friend's state of mind as a tactical advantage or disadvantage.

"Fuck. I have to apologize to Matt. And the entirety of San Francisco." Tony grumbles, standing as the Extremis armor bleeds back over his body, covering him up again.

"Are you sure you're okay to go back in there?" Steve asks, frowning. He might not normally ask, but he'd seen how shaken Tony had looked. Tony must remember with clarity everything he did while switched around, and Steve knows all too clearly Tony's capacity for guilt.

"Fine." Tony says, and Steve realizes that the strange aloofness to the new armor is gone. It may have been part of the voice modulation or it may have been because the man inside had felt as othered from humanity as an evil Extremis enhanced Tony Stark undoubtedly would. He didn't even realize the aloofness was there until it was gone, but something in him settles even further. If they're going to die here, at least he's with friends. At least Tony knows himself.

"Okay, go." Steve orders, and Tony shoots off into the air again. He's not as brutal or as effective as he was before, but he's himself.

The battle is long and difficult. There's no point after that where it looks like they're going to win. He tries to just **not lose** , like they were told, but that doesn't seem to be working either.

Friends start falling left and right and not getting back up again. They take out some of their adversaries, but it's not enough. It's _not enough_. Steve has a horrible sinking feeling that they're going to lose, that they're going to die and their world is going to burn. For a moment he can't believe it, because they saw the future and it existed, but then he remembers that time is fluid and ever changing and just using the time gem changed the course of history. They might not win this. He barely falters, though, before fighting harder than he had before, determined not to let that happen.

A loud metal on metal noise startles everyone, and Steve looks up from his fight to see Tony grappling in the air with someone whose body is a patchwork of metal and flesh. Tony is losing. It's obvious with a glance, and Steve spares a glance as often as he can. The figure with the patchwork metal body is beating Tony so quickly and so badly that it's sickening to watch. Tony fights back, of course, but his repulsors seem useless. Eventually he stops fighting back, the armor no longer flying under its own power, Tony hanging limp and lifeless from one hand as the horrific punishment continues. Finally the person who was beating on Tony stops, and just drops him.

Tony plummets out of the sky. Someone screams "Iron Man," raw and broken, and after a moment Steve realizes the elderly voice is him. The aging is sometimes like how the serum first was - his body moves in new ways, does unexpected things, and Steve is still taken by surprise by his voice or his reflection. Fortunately he still moves like a super soldier when he puts his mind to it, if not a geriatric one, and he runs to where Tony fell, silver armor so streaked with blood that it almost looks like one of his old red armors, but with silver highlights instead of gold.

Steve isn't even sure he'll find Tony alive when he gets over to him, and the shifts and groans are encouraging. He kneels next to Tony and uses his best Captain America voice - because despite Sam being Captain America, Tony has teased Steve about the Cap voice enough that that's how Steve thinks of it, too - to order, "Open the faceplate." Tony has always been a contrary person, but using that commanding tone is the best chance Steve has of making him listen.

"You're not gonna like it." Tony says, tone modulated and somewhat flat through the speakers, but Steve has had so many years of experience picking Iron Man's tone and body language and even the tiny hesitations in his voice to pieces that Tony's pain is clear to him.

"Open it anyway." Steve demands, and the faceplate melts back to show Tony, battered and bloody and eyes unfocused. Steve looks over the rest of Tony's body, takes in the awkward way his limbs are splayed. The blood - so much blood - streaking the outside of the armor, having leaked out through cracks. He doesn't think Extremis armor is supposed to crack like that. Or dent so badly that the body underneath must be absolutely crushed. "God, Tony. How bad is it?"

"If I didn't have Extremis regulating my bodily functions, I'd be drowning in blood. Hell, that might still happen." Tony says, shaking his head. "All I can feel is pain."

Steve shifts, gently pulling Tony into his lap. He would be more careful, given the extent of Tony's injuries, but he doubts it'll matter. The heroes and villains from the other Earth have surrounded a spot about fifty feet away, and are doing ... something. Steve wonders if they have a bomb like the one Tony made for the Illuminati. Steve considers going over and trying to disable it once the people from the other Earth are gone, but he doubts it will be that easy to tamper with. And if he's going to die anyway, he'd rather do it next to Tony.

Tony must be thinking, too, because he says, "I'm sorry, Steve. For everything."

That's not good enough. It's not _nearly_ good enough. And yet, somehow, it is. "We both made mistakes, Tony. You're forgiven. For everything." Steve says, stressing the last word. He purposefully ignores the wetness in Tony's eyes. It's probably from pain or the realization that it's all over - that they lost and that they are all going to die, themselves and everyone they've ever known. After a moment he says, trying to lighten the mood slightly, "This reminds me of the Lord of the Rings."

"You and your thing for Tolkien." Tony teases, then says a bit grimly, "Here at the end of all things?"

Steve frowns a bit and nods. Maybe not the lightest end of the world conversation. "Yeah."

"There's nobody I'd rather be here with than you." Tony says, and there's a wistful note to his voice that makes Steve look down at him, as the heroes and villains from the other world leave and as he hears the few remaining Avengers start to mourn their universe. Not many of them are still moving, much less aware enough to know things are ending.

"Me, either." Steve says, watching Tony closely. They've been friends for so long, and after a while it became something more. He never thought Tony felt the same, but the way Tony was looking at him now ... he wondered. If he was wrong and Tony didn't feel the same, it wasn't like they had long. At this point no mistake would have lasting consequences.

He leans down and presses his lips to Tony's, tasting Tony's blood - too metallic by far - and only holds them there for a moment before pulling back. Tony's eyes are wide and shocked, but not with revulsion. "How long?" Tony asks.

"Years." Steve says, and it's true. He's loved Tony while fighting against him and alongside him, while they've both loved and tried to find lives with women. Steve had genuinely been happy for Tony while he was with Rumiko, glad that Tony was so happy with someone, even if it wasn't him.

Tony's breathing is growing ragged, and he says, barely there, "Kiss me again. Please." Steve leans down and kisses him again, and this time Tony kisses back, passionately and lovingly, one hand coming up to weakly grasp at Steve. The kiss lasts for about 20 seconds, and then Tony goes limp and still.

Curling around Tony's body, Steve doesn't even feel it when the explosion blasts their world into pieces.

* * *

 

Steve learns two things in the end. Lessons that he's learned before but apparently haven't sunk in enough to really be effective. The first is that even when he time travels to the future, that doesn't mean the future is set in stone. The second is that he will always, in the end, forgive and love Tony.


End file.
